nathanhooper

Picture didn't come through

Good to hear. I was kind of like you the other day. Start to venture out of your norm and the norm calls to you even louder. I see the water temp might be on its way back up. Were the striper boats on the eastern or western side of the Island? I know when I ventured over to check out the humps near 3 I did see some fish, and at one point before dark I thought I was about to see a school, but wanted to be in familiar waters before it got too dark. Maybe one day I'll run into you out there. Soon as my boat is done I'm gonna take a day off work and get out for a full day of fishing.

I certainly have not caught the number of fish nor know the habits like F&F so I would take his thoughts over mine. But when I do catch stripers they all have seemed to go down, straight down. And I have felt the inside of a few mouths and could see how one would wear through light line with head shakes. We lost a good one over by RB at the boat that headshook and cut/broke the line. I have caught way more walleye this year than stripers. I've gotten to the point where, except for one, I've been able to call each walleye versus a bass whether it be striped/SM/white. They have a distinct couple of head shakes that are somewhat slow, then a limp noodle/log pull in. Every now and again I have had them fight right at the boat, but almost always have them give up after a just a little fight at the hookup. Stripers and other bass seem to always put up way more fight and are therefore easier to distinguish. Either way I'm happy. If it puts up a fight I think "yehaw". If not I think "mmmmmmmmm...dinner".

I've noticed the same thing about sunset. Where I fish the most you can troll over the thing for hours on end and nothing bites. Keep trolling and right at sunset you'll start pulling walleye into the boat over the same water you've been running the boat in for hours. It's about got to the point that I don't get out to the ramp till around 7-7:30. You don't think that one pulling you around was a striper? I know there are some big ones in that area.

Got out last night. Spent more time driving than fishing. Didn't find much driving, so started fishing. Pulled in a couple walleye before the company needed to get back home. I did notice that the temps on my sonar are 10 degrees cooler than a week ago. Wonder how that effects them. Also, happy to say that I now don't waste but a few scales on the fish I catch now. I raise a few pigs for some good eating each year and decided to see how they liked fish. Filleted the fish as normal, took the carcass to the pigs, this morning I strained my eyes to find a few scales on the ground. Gonna be some good eating this fall

Ok, call me a hungry fisherman. if it's a fish, it's a fish. What else is he gonna do when "some" other people are catching all the other good sized fish. Maybe he should get a 6" handicap kind of like what they do in golf?

It counts. Them there are pan friers. Perfect candidate for skinning and throwing in the pan.

Well shoot. Here I was thinking that they were wearing batman suits hiding in the darkness. Didn't get out this evening. Decided to work on the boat instead. I'm trying for tomorrow even if it's just for a few hours. Maybe they will stop all this super hero nonsense and just swim up to my boat in defeat.

Anyone heard anything about striper activity dam end of the lake? (Pun intended) Thinking about taking wife and boys out. Curious as to what kind of activity there is and how deep they may be running. Need to know if I should throw the downriggers on.

Ok, I've never filleted a trout. Is it the same as other fish?

I looked this topic up a while back and I too am curious about the blueback actually being in the lake. I thought they weren't. I'd love to see some pictures of your fish, would help us all identify what we see from time to time.

Them small spots are yummy. I used to catch them all the time where the lake access is at my work. I don't know enough about how they come up with size/limits, but what I do look at is the amount of meat on a fish when I decide to take one home. And one thing I have noticed is that some of the smaller 20"(3-5lb) stripers I catch, have quite a bit of meat compared to the few larger 15-20lb ones I have caught. It seems like the bigger(heavier) they get, the more it goes into their organs and skeletal structure. Obviously there is more meat on the bigger ones, but I do find it interesting how much is on the smaller ones. I wouldn't mind seeing some yellow perch also. I hear they are very good eating. They kind of look like small walleyes to me.

Thanks for the update. Yesterday was the first Wednesday in quite some time that I have not been out on the water. I was hoping to fish vicariously through someone else's trip. I'll be back out soon. I jumped in up to my waist with my boat build project so I'm torn between working on it and fishing. Head west and tell me what its like...I hear its full of whisky, women, and gold...

Ok, here you go. First click on the "Full Version" button at the bottom if your in the mobile version of the forum. Then click on "Choose File" Then either choose from your library or take one Whatever you pick will show up as a little thumbnail beside the "Choose File" button As it uploads you will see the two little arrows making a circle thing When it gets uploaded you'll see it come up with the option to Add to Post or Delete Click on "Add to Post" and you'll see it come up in brackets in your typing window May sound rudimentary, but here it is anyways. If you follow those steps you'll get it every time. I personally have never had to decrease the size of my picture. I use an iPhone 5. Not the S or the C, just regular 5. I can try to get one with a bigger size and see what happens, but hopefully this will get you started.

I'll post tomorrow when I get more time, but it's fairly easy once you walk through it once. Sorry I don't have the time tonight.

Were those fish off point 3 suspended in that 80' of water? Curious as to how deep you were seeing them there.

Well, good deal. I bet I was seeing some of those fish on sonar the other night. I am trying to get my neighbor out there to put him on one, I can only imagine he would be more excited than a 10 year old kid. He was ecstatic when he shot his first buck a few years ago. Of course, it still is a goal of mine to get a 10lb+ in my boat using my own tackle and such. I have good luck fishing on others boat, but want one I can call my own.

So when you say "the" stripers, do you mean the majority of them or just a lot of them or a lot of good quality ones?

Update to report. Walleye was killer pan fried/cooked in a butter sauce with a slight garlic salt and pepper seasoning. On the top of a nice bed of yellow rice of course. The striper was noticeably tougher, but good nonetheless. Think I'll be throwing the stripers back and keeping the eyes. One of these days I'll break my trolling habit and get a mess of bluegill in the pan.

Ha, that's the way it works. He was eating my favorite, fish tacos. Only thing better is fried eagle, followed close by whooping crane.

waste not want not... I've been seeing a lot of buzzards up Indian Creek lately...

Before I go? I make em out on the water!

Funny thing is, people that see me fishing probably take one look and say...lets get out of here. lol

So I managed to get out for a bit last night. No pictures to show, but I did ok. Would have had 3 walleye in the boat, but one got away right at the boat. I had been pulling him for a while and just did not realize it I guess. Seems the bite came right at dark and might have lasted for a while but I had to get back home. I managed to pull one small striper in also. I was marking a LOT of fish. More than I have seen before. I can only assume that they were stripers and walleye. They were lines stacked on each other. There were a few big arches alone, but for the most part there were schools of them. I have seen it before there, but never managed to pull anything up. I chalked it up last year to maybe carp or catfish or something, but I am thinking otherwise now. I did get some more hits, but had to call it a night. It was a lightning show to the north and have to wonder if it was stirring the fish up some. One interesting thing is I did drop my new toy down in the water. I was regretting buying the camera at first when I tried it back up in back of Indian Creek. Could not see a minnow if it was swimming in front of it. Way too cloudy water, at least where I was looking. But then when you get further to the Dam the water clears back up and you can see a good ways with it. I probably could have caught more fish last night but I was torn between looking for them with the camera and actually fishing... It was one of the main reasons I got it, because of those fish I saw last year on the sonar and some I saw earlier this year that I could not get to bite on anything. I wanted to be able to see exactly what it was I saw on sonar. So, back to the interesting thing, when I dropped the camera down where I do troll a lot I was able to see the bottom pretty good. I troll here because of the lack of hangups and such...and there are fish of course. On sonar its pretty clean looking, but the camera showed a different world. Lots of big rocks and such. Its interesting because the sonar doesn't really show that. I can only assume that because of the beam width it 'averages' out the bottom structure and is only going to show a big bump if it covers a significant part of the beam. Another thing that was neat to see was on my last run I had my head lamp on looking over the side and all of a sudden I could see a school of stripers/hybrids swimming not far from the boat. Not sure if I trolled into them or if they were just wondering and came up along side of me as I turned into shore. Either way, they were on the hunt and my baits were way to deep for those guys. The fish I was seeing were anywhere from 30' up to ?, biggest concentration was when I was in 25' of water. I am sure they were shallow also, but my baits would drag if I got too deep. I would see a lone fish in the 40' range when I ventured out that far. I would catch them when I hit 25'-24' feet of water. And as far as Indian Creek being a hot spot...well...lets say that I saw maybe one or two other boats...but only for a brief second as they sped by. There are fish there, but if it was so hot I would think I would see at least one guide out there...just sayin.

That's what I figured. But I wish they wouldn't push all the guys off down my way...tell them the bite is way up river somewhere.